After an embarrassing mishap during her first battle and the death of her benevolent eldest brother in a later one Mercy discovers an ugly side to her two other brothers involving an enemy soldier tortured nearly to death. Growing up in the royal family Mercy was not familiar with the true happenings in Tarlen and among the rebels which Raliph reveals to her. A spoiled, antipathetic princess who hoped only for fame and glory Mercy is forced to think differently after her encounter with the rebel soldier. With her new insight into the true horrors of war, Mercy decides to put an end to it, in a different way than what her brothers' had in mind, but is not only opposed by the enemy rebel army, but also by those in her own family.